Crounse大厅

Crounse大厅 is home to the Grace Doherty Library, The Center for Teaching and Learning, Vahlkamp剧院, as well as classrooms and faculty offices. Centre’s Lincoln statue greets visitors just outside of Crounse大厅. The statue was dedicated in 2012 and was created by Louisville artist Ed Hamilton.

The Grace Doherty Library

Named for Grace Doherty of Catlettsburg, Ky., the library features comfortable study areas, computer stations, and resources. The Library also holds the College archives, 包括记录, oral history interviews, 照片, 历史论文, and other materials from Centre’s history. The lobby features works of art by students, 专业人士, and world renowned artists including glass artist Lino Tagliapietra.

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The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)

CTL is located in the basement level and offers a variety of pedagogical supports for members of the campus community, including instructional design consultations and seminars, academic technology services, and assistance with equipment and room reservations. CTL manages and provides support for campus-wide systems, such as Moodle and Ensemble, and offers flexible hours for faculty, staff and students to explore, 开发, and create assignments in our Mac-based 媒体 Lab.

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Vahlkamp剧院

This 170-seat theater located in the basement level, accommodates guest lecturers, 班级观影次数, and mainstream movies.

林肯的雕像

Centre’s Lincoln statue greets visitors just outside of Crounse. The statue was dedicated in 2012 and was created by Louisville artist Ed Hamilton.

The Story Behind the Name

当老主, Centre’s primary academic building from 1871 until 1964, had outlived its usefulness, the College conceived of an innovative replacement: a “hall of learning.” Books and research—the library—would be at the heart of the enterprise. 教室, where students would explore with their professors the great ideas to be found in books, would surround the library. At the top would be faculty offices.

The entire new building was known as Grace Doherty Library when it opened in 1967. In 1986, the building was renamed Crounse Academic Center in honor of major benefactors Eleanor and George P. Crounse老. In 2005, Crounse大厅, as it is now known, was significantly renovated and enlarged.

乔治P. CROUNSE老. (1912-1999)

Innovative, impish, and wise, George P. Crounse老. made a fortune with his eponymously named river transportation company, then gave much of it away, 通常匿名. His 1976 gift of stock in the Crounse Corporation and the corporation’s subsequent repurchase of the stock in 1982 remain among the most significant events in Centre’s long history.

The original gift was valued at about $1.1 million—at a time when Centre’s endowment was only $7.500万年. When the closely held corporation repurchased the stock in 1982, the deal was worth more than $8.500万年 and resulted in a dramatic increase in annual income for current expenses.

In a 1984 letter to then-president Richard L. Morrill, Crounse set out the history of the gift and his reasons for choosing Centre as the beneficiary. Because of an impending change in tax laws, 他解释说, the charitable foundation he established to support organizations mostly in Paducah was no longer feasible. His response was to dissolve it, giving all its assets—Crounse Corporation stock—to Centre. “I strongly believe gifts should be made close to home,” he wrote. “I also believe that no institution in Kentucky is more stable than Centre.”

Crounse’s first contact with Centre had come when he brought his older son on a college visit in the early 1960s. 小乔治。. 最后进了哈佛, but Crounse was impressed with Centre’s commitment to the liberal arts and, 特别是, by a chance meeting he had while on campus with then-president Thomas A. Spragens.

Crounse served on Centre’s board for 16 years between 1970 and 1987. After he stepped off the Centre board, Crounse continued to recruit worthy Paducah-area students to Centre with four-year scholarships, 总是匿名. In 1990, he accepted an honorary degree from Centre, becoming at last an “alumnus” of the college he had transformed. He died in 1999, at 86, having continued to run his beloved company almost until the end. 埃莉诺于2000年去世.

The Crounse connection continued at Centre, where George and Eleanor Crounse’s great-granddaughter India Allen ’17 majored in English.